


His Best Friend's Girlfriend

by mustlovemustypages



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Misunderstandings, Pining, Rare Pair Fest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-09 22:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7820473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mustlovemustypages/pseuds/mustlovemustypages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What had initially started off as a Protect Steve Rogers Club made up of two members – Sam and Sharon, had somehow morphed into something else entirely. </p><p>Full extraction from the situation was the only solution. Sharon would be none the wiser that he thought of her as anything more than a friend, and Steve would never know that Sam had an inappropriate crush on his girlfriend.</p><p>It turned out to be much harder than he had anticipated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChaoticDemon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticDemon/gifts).



> Written for the Rare Pair Fest pairing of Sharon Carter/Sam Wilson. This story takes place sometime after Captain America: Civil War in a sort of AU universe where Steve and Tony don't completely hate each other (hey! I can dream, right?). It also makes the assumption that Sharon and Sam are both full-fledged members of the Avengers, and that most of the Avengers live in the same general area (because 1. Let me have my headcanon dreams AND 2. I'm the writer of this semi-coherent mess of a fic so what I say goes).
> 
> A big thanks goes to those hosting this year's fest! It was a blast to be a part of. Also, thanks to ChaoticDemon for requesting Sharon/Sam because it gave me a reason to write for an extremely underrated couple in the Marvel Universe. I hope it didn't disappoint and fulfilled your request!

Despite what the media and general public believed, the Avengers were _not_ fighting villains 24/7. It was only on occasion that they were all called together to defeat a deranged alien (or god) from another planet, and aside from those instances, most of them lived comparatively unexciting lives the majority of the time.

For example, Iron Man and the Hulk spent most of their “downtime” doing science stuff that no one except themselves could understand. And Thor… well, Thor was perhaps one of the most normal of them all seeing as how he spent a lot of time with his girlfriend, dealing with family issues, and, like the rest of America, battling an extreme addiction for Pop-Tarts. Even Black Widow and Hawkeye’s covert missions were few and far between recently, and nothing close to battling a mind-controlling Loki.

However, Captain America was never one to follow a crowd. When Tony and Bruce were arguing about Physics in the SHIELD lunch line, the super soldier was getting ready his newest gear in the test labs below ground. For every one mission of Natasha and Clint’s, good ole Captain America had four.

When Sam and Sharon had expressed their concern that he might be pushing himself too hard, their friend argued back that he was literally _made_ to do this. And unfortunately, he was actually right.

That was when Sam and Sharon had formed the Protect Steve Rogers Club. With only the two of them as members, their unofficial club meetings were comprised of plans to get Steve to slow down, take a break, maybe convince him to do something that didn’t involve throwing himself into life-threatening situations whenever he had the chance. Sometimes they were successful and managed to distract him from his superhero duties by modern day pop culture lessons (comprised of binge watching tv shows on Netflix and showing him the wealth of knowledge that is Reddit).

Somewhere along the way, though, their little club had somehow morphed into something else entirely. Sam didn’t know exactly when their meetings had changed from concerned five-minute conversations between missions about Steve’s mental state into movie nights where Steve’s name wasn’t mentioned even once, but they had.

It wasn’t that Sam was necessarily _angry_ about the change. Not at all. He enjoyed spending time with Sharon. They had similar taste in movies (action flicks with happy endings), and had developed a comfortable familiarity with each other that usually took years of friendship to develop.

All the same, it was disconcerting. The thought hit him smack dab in the middle of one of their movie nights - during the intense scene in _Inception_ when all of the water rushes into the temple. Right as Leonardo DiCaprio’s character was blinking death in the eye, Sam felt similarly bombarded. The realization overtook him like a wave of water, threatening to cut off his air pipe.

He’d started to choke on his popcorn and Sharon had almost used the Heimlich maneuver on him. After his reassurances that he really was fine, which Sharon being Sharon didn’t entirely believe, they went back to watching the movie.

She only glanced over at him occasionally with her concerned expression.

It was a look that he recognized because she used it on Steve often. Except it was okay for her to be looking at Steve like that because they were a couple. Sam had witnessed their intense kiss while sitting in the back of a VW Bug with Bucky. It was a heated moment for sure seeing as how neither thought they'd ever see each other again. But they _had_ seen each other again, against all odds, and Sam was happy for the two of them.

So it was okay for Sharon to look at Steve with those soft eyes and furrowed brows because she was his girlfriend. What wasn’t okay was for her to look at Sam with that same expression. She probably didn’t even realize she was doing it. Sharon was Sharon. Nice and sweet. On her end, nothing had changed. They were still friends, brought together because of their concern for the kind-hearted super soldier who would throw down his life for anyone and everyone.

On Sam’s end, though, _everything_ had changed. Watching Leonardo DiCaprio jerk out of his dream state and into the real world, Sam similarly felt as if his head was lifting from a cloud. He liked _Captain America’s_ girlfriend. He liked his _best friend’s_ girlfriend. And not even a little bit, where you hope the feeling goes away quickly and efficiently with no harm done.

Nope. It was in that crushing, all-consuming sort of way that quickly transformed into other kinds of feelings. Feelings one did not have for someone else’s significant other.

Right then and there Sam made a promise to himself to end things. _Inception_ would be their last movie night. He’d have to find some excuse to stay away, like extra training sessions with Natasha or asking Tony to make modifications to his wings. Probably both and more if he was going to make a genuine effort to keep this up.

He no longer could joke around with her while they waited for their coffees down in the cafeteria. That just led to her wonderful laugh which Sam thought was one of the best sounds in the world. And no more sparring when they were bored. That was just asking for all sorts of trouble.

Sam hadn’t meant to let it get this far, but he had no one to blame except himself. After all, Sharon was just being nice to one of her boyfriend’s best friends. Sure, she seemed to need the company more frequently recently since her Aunt Peggy had died and Steve was away so much. Sam was more than happy to help her through that time… he just couldn’t do it anymore.

Full extraction from the situation was the only solution. Sharon would be none the wiser that he thought of her as anything more than a friend, and Steve would never know that Sam had an inappropriate crush on his girlfriend.

* * *

It turned out to be much harder than he had anticipated. Over the past few months, every aspect of his life had somehow become entwined with one Sharon Carter’s. Movie nights were just the formal part – the one they planned and the one comprising only a fraction of the time they actually spent together. Eating breakfast together in the cafeteria when they spotted each other and the same occurring at lunch, attending the same meetings for the new Avengers initiative (commiserating together at being the two newest recruits), and all-in-all seeing the other one constantly in the halls bustling to and from activities – that was where he was really in deep water.

Cold turkey always worked best for him as he was an all-or-nothing kind of guy. Still, Sam felt a physical pain in his chest as he withdrew. The only way he could get through each day was by telling himself that he was doing the right thing.

And for about four days it seemed to work. Sharon was gone on an out-of-the-blue intel retrieval op one of those days, and during the other three, he was able to make excuses about prepping for a yet non-existent mission of his own by doing training sessions with Tony and Natasha. Both of whom could somehow sense what he was doing. He didn’t know _how_ , because he hadn’t even realized the mess he’d gotten himself into until a few days ago, but Tony was a genius and Natasha a spy. He supposed that was explanation enough.

Neither said much on the subject, addressing it only once in their individual ways.

Tony squinted at him a lot and finally, eyes amused with realization, simply shook his head and said, “You’re an idiot.” Which, while true, was doubly painful to hear confirmed from the head idiot himself.

Natasha’s was a little kinder, although, Sam thought, much worse because Natasha being kind was a rarity and meant he was even more pathetic than he’d previously thought. “Never enter a room without thinking first about all possible scenarios,” she’d said cryptically with a sad, experienced smile. And heck if Sam didn’t feel like curling up into a ball right then and there.

Compounding the problem was that he had to witness from afar Sharon’s reaction to the whole thing. Somewhat confused. A little angry. But mostly just _hurt_. She’d gone from having a friend one day with whom to eat meals with and snicker over the ridiculous tirades of the Avengers, to having absolutely nothing. Sam felt like giving her a hug and wiping away the permanent frown that had planted itself on her face for the past three days. Except, of course, that would only contribute to the problem and make his cold turkey plan fail miserably.

Then, if matters couldn’t get any worse, Steve finally returned from his month long my-best-friend-is-in-a-cryogenically-frozen-state-and-I-need-to-beat-up-some-bad-guys getaway. Steve’s absence was what had originally accelerated Sharon and Sam’s friendship. Captain America, their friend/boyfriend, was gone, and leaving a giant star-shaped hole where he usually stood. It was only natural to try to fill that space with whatever they could.

The Avengers' hellos were quick and somewhat awkward (Tony merely saluted and went back down to his lab, shoulders tense and fingers looking like they were about to make a nuclear weapon). But because of the hour and Steve’s obvious exhaustion, they went to bed and made promises to talk in the morning.

Sam had decided to skip breakfast in the cafeteria the next morning to avoid seeing the couple's delayed reunion, seeing as how Sharon had already been asleep when Steve had gotten back. He was just going to grab a protein bar from his dwindling stash and head straight over to a training session with Natasha, which meant he could sleep in for an extra hour, thus simultaneously avoiding the said awkward breakfast thing while also getting extra rest so that maybe he could last a little longer while sparring the tireless Black Widow.

A knock on his door thirty minutes before his alarm was set to sound completely ruined his plan, though. It didn’t take him long to wake up and in less than a minute he was answering the door wearing a semi-clean pair of jeans and an ironically unironic t-shirt that read “I know Captain America so take a step back.”

When he swung open the door, he found none other than Steve Rogers himself standing there. Looking at his clothing of choice, Steve gave a small smile. “Nice shirt.”

“Thanks,” Sam said, stepping back from the door and letting Steve come in. After closing the door behind him, he turned and added, “I got it from the gift shop in Stark Towers.”

Steve held the smile for another moment, then his expression turned serious. “You and I need to have a talk about Sharon.”

Sam felt his stomach drop out from under him at that, and he was slow to respond. “Okay… what about Sharon exactly?” Then, because he didn’t think he could do this conversation while standing up, walked over to his sofa and plopped down. Steve followed, although instead of sitting he stopped directly in front of Sam and just stood there. _Great._

“Specifically,” Steve started sharply, then visibly had to restrain himself, “why I found Sharon down at breakfast this morning, alone, and practically on the verge of tears.”

He hadn’t thought he could feel worse, but hearing that Sharon was almost crying tore through him. It really wasn’t his intention to hurt her; really, he was doing this all because he didn’t want to hurt anyone. Closing his eyes, he laid his head on the back of the sofa and sighed. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“That’s funny because it seems that Sharon was tearfully eating her oatmeal in the middle of the cafeteria due to the fact that her usual friend had recently been avoiding her.”

Sam swallowed hard at that. He didn’t need to have his eyes open to see the look on Steve’s face. His friend had long ago mastered the I’m-disappointed-in-you expression and he really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. He’d seen grown men cry when it was used upon them, and Sam was almost crying already as it was.

“Look man, I know you won’t understand, but I was just trying to do the right thing.” Sam hoped that they could just leave it at that because he really didn’t want to have to explain how he’d accidentally fallen in like/love with Steve’s girlfriend while he was away.

“Oh good,” Steve said, and there was no sarcasm in his voice. Sam popped open an eye and was surprised to see his friend looking relieved. Steve let out a breath and smiled down at Sam who was still slouched back on the sofa like an angsty teenager. “Natasha has been keeping me updated about everything going on in the towers while I was away. And when she told me that you and Sharon were getting closer I had hoped she was right…” Steve paused and held up a hand, glancing around as if the Black Widow herself was going to drop down from the ceiling. “Forget I said that. Of course, she’s _always_ right.” Then he grinned. “And I was just really happy to hear that two of my best friends were getting together.” His grin dropped. “But then I got back and I guess I’m just confused.”

Sam snapped his head up from the sofa so fast he would probably have whiplash tomorrow. “Wait, what? But the kiss…” he exclaimed, waving his hand in the air to refer to the kiss he had seen take place between Sharon and Steve under the bridge.

“… was a one-time thing,” Steve finished for him, and oh, that was not at all what Sam had been expecting him to say. Sensing his confusion, his friend added, “It was in the heat of the moment. Nothing ever came of it. I like Sharon. A lot. But just as friends. Nothing more.”

Mind heavy with this new information, Sam could only manage another, “What?”

Steve laughed. “So was that why you’ve been avoiding Sharon for the past couple days? She said that you’d been hanging out a lot, watching movies and eating together, but that recently you just sort of…”

“Quit cold turkey?” Sam supplied, voice incredulous. Then he started laughing, too, except, unlike Steve his laughs were edged with a tinge of disbelief. “Oh man, this has been killing me! I felt so horrible!” He quickly hopped off the sofa and started to head towards the door, but paused and turned to Steve with a frown. “But what if she just sees me as a friend?”

In a deadpan expression that even Tony Stark would be impressed by, Steve looked at Sam and said, “The woman, a trained agent mind you, was almost sobbing over her breakfast cereal in a room full of other agents. I don’t think she sees you as just a friend.”

Slightly reassured, the corner of Sam’s mouth ticked upward into a grin. Then he yanked on a pair of shoes and flew out the door, calling back to his apartment, “Lock up when you leave! I’ll see you at lunch!

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was just going to leave the story as Part 1, but then I was like "Sharon and Sam didn't really interact at all in this." And since it was supposed to be a story focused on the pairing of SHARON/SAM, I decided to add a second part.

Sam had never been so happy that he had agreed to move into Stark Towers with the rest of the Avengers as he was that morning.

Even with the SHIELD facility being so close, though, time seemed to drag on forever. First, there was the elevator, and although he’d insisted that JARVIS “speed it up,” he doubted the AI had listened to him. Then there was actually getting from the one building to the other, and by the time he was outside the cafeteria, having gone through countless security gates and checkpoints, over twenty minutes had passed.

Just as he was about to start searching the rows of tables that comprised the area, he spotted Sharon walking toward the exit. He watched, silent, as she dumped a full bowl of oatmeal into the garbage and headed in his direction, mouth set in a firm line.

She didn’t notice him standing there until she was several feet from him. He knew the exact moment she spotted him because her eyes widened perceptibly and her whole body seemed to freeze. Then she gave a painful, half smile. Even when Sharon was hurting, she tried to be a good person. It was one of the things he liked about her so much.

“Hey,” Sam said, that being the only word his mind could conjure up, and he belatedly realized that he _really_ should have spent those twenty minutes that it took him to get there thinking about what he was going to say when he actually got there. Also, he probably should have taken a beat before going in because he was feeling a little winded from all of that running.

Sharon tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “Hello.” She looked past Sam’s shoulder for a second before her eyes flickered back to him. “You’re out of breath.”

Sam grinned, and taking that for the acknowledgment that it was, he bent over and put his hands on his knees. “Yeah. Running all the way here from Stark Towers will do that to you.” Sharon raised an eyebrow that obviously was asking, why exactly, he had done that.

Taking in a deep breath, Sam straightened and decided on the truth. Avoiding it like he’d been doing seemed to just cause more problems rather than fix them. “Because Steve paid me a visit.”

“Oh.” Sharon exhaled and looked away, worrying her lip. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

Sam took a step closer and tilted his head, trying to catch her eye. When he did, he said, “Yes, he should have. And I’m glad he did.” He got no verbal response to that, although Sharon was looking at him again, so that was progress. There was a barely there mix of trepidation and hope on her face, and it was the second that gave Sam the push he needed.

“I’ve been an idiot.” He figured that starting with a statement of fact was never a bad thing, especially when said fact had been told to him by a certifiable genius. “Uh, as you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been kind of avoiding you for the past few days.”

Sharon huffed in agreement. Then, her features softened and she said quietly, “What happened, Sam? I thought we were friends.”

Sam was beginning to think that Sharon could give Steve a run for his money in the guilt-inducing department. “We _were_ …” he started to say, and he could see Sharon visibly react to his using the past tense, and he quickly corrected himself. “I mean we _are_. We _are_ friends, Sharon. But then things got… complicated.”

“Complicated… how?”

“Well, you see, I know this guy – and he’s best friends with a superhero. And there’s this girl that this superhero kissed a few months back. Recently, this girl has become one of the guy’s best friends, too.” At that, Sharon smiled, and Sam took a deep breath. “But then he started feeling things that you don’t feel for friends, especially friends who are with your best friend.”

“But…” Sharon started to protest, and Sam raised a hand to stop her.

“So this guy realized that he had to stop. He couldn’t do that to this girl, his best friend, or himself. So he went cold turkey.”

This time, it was Sharon who took a step closer. Her eyes flashed with amusement. “Cold turkey?”

Sam nodded. “It was pretty miserable, but he thought he was doing the right thing.” He couldn’t help the heat that rushed to his cheeks at the next part. “Then he was visited this morning by the superhero friend and set straight.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he scrunched up his face and gave Sharon an apologetic smile. “I’ve been an idiot.”

Sharon leaned in a bit and whispered. “You already said that.” Then she tilted her head to the side, considering. “But I suppose it doesn’t hurt to hear it again.”

The next part was completely unplanned, but Sam wasn’t called the Falcon for nothing. He did terrifying things on a daily basis, frequently while wearing wings and flying ten stories up in the air. So, he just had to pretend that he was wearing his wings now and take the plunge.

Slowly, he brought one hand up to Sharon’s face and paused, waiting to see her reaction.

It turned out he hadn’t need to wait at all, though, because suddenly Sharon was pressing her lips against his. It was quick and sweet and perfect. Also over far too soon, but she lingered just close enough that he thought, just maybe, they could be doing more of that in the near future. 

Not being able to the huge smile that broke out onto his face, Sam pointed back to the cafeteria. “I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t eat breakfast. Care to join me?”

In response, Sharon hooked an arm through his. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was un-beta'd, as you could probably tell, although I did try to go through and correct any major grammatical/spelling errors. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think! (And if you have any other Sharon/Sam fics to recommend, I'm all ears!)
> 
> **Originally I had this titled "Cold Turkey" then realized that might give off the wrong impression of what this story is about**


End file.
